December 15, 2011

Okay, I admit it. I do love distractions. It can be hard for me to focus but while it's sometimes difficult, it's not always difficult because I also LOVE checking things off my list - big, crazy, detail-oriented projects.

December 05, 2011

Bruce W. Marcus has written an article that professional service firm marketers and the fee-earners in those firms should read. Titled "Why Professional Services Marketing 3.0 Matters for Your Future - and What To Do About It," the article takes us back to Professional Services Marketing 1.0 (where some firms sadly still live) and the Bates decision (1977) which struck down the ethical rules that prohibited any promotional activity for legal and accounting firms.

Marcus asserts that the Bates decision created the beginnings of the marketing practices used today and it introduced the concept of competition as "the major driving force in not only developing new marketing practices, but in changing the nature of the professional firm itself."

In the early days after the Bates decision (and I would argue up until the 1990s), most accounting and law firms had not begun to adapt and the condescending line quoted in the title of this post was likely often said and heard. (An aside: I know professional service firm marketers today who have been heard such language - even been the subject of it.) These firms were, as Marcus puts it, in the 1.0 stage of professional service firm marketing.

Stage 2.0 is "the growth and development of contemporary marketing" and Stage 3.0 is "the emerging marketing practice in which professionals fully participate in—and are even beginning to be the initiators of— the marketing process" which further accelerates the change in professional firms, according to Marcus.

Marcus notes that the evolutionary process from Stage 1.0 to Stage 3.0 results in change and that change, "particularly in a dynamic economic environment" makes it difficult to plan for the long-term. Yet, plan we must. He offers steps to planning for a 3.0 firm (or those heading towards 3.0). I have bolded the points that resonated most with me:

Recognize that competition is one of the most important factors governing the contemporary practice. Anything you do should always be in a competitive context.

Recognize that change is inevitable—you can't escape it and still thrive in today's business environment.

Recognize the difference between long- and short-term planning. Many of the likely business circumstances are foreseeable in the short term—less so in the long term, which is why long-term planning rarely works out. There are too many random and unforeseeable events that alter plans.

Recognize that the key factor in planning is not "What kind of firm do we want to be," but how much you understand about the market for your services. (One of the factors in the recent rash of firm mergers involves law and accounting firms too deeply immersed in a declining industry.) For a manufacturer, long-term planning involves the market as well, but also plant construction and transportation, neither of which looms large in legal or accounting practice.

Go as deeply as possible into your clients' business and industries. Look for trends. Read the trade journals and attend industry organizations and conferences. Don't guess. Try to know.

Competitive intelligence is crucial in a competitive environment. Innovation is not imitation; it's improvement over what others are doing.

Understand that successful marketing is client-based strategy, not a collection of marketing skills and mechanics routinely applied, and that it is client-focused, not firm-focused. "This is what I'm selling" is not the same as selling from a clear understanding of client needs.

Understand that change is not an event—it's a process. Its future is rooted in its past, which is why understanding its past is important for understanding its future. Nor is it always a straight line—it's opportunistic. It's responsive to a changing environment, so pay attention to your profession's and your market's environments.

Marcus says it best when he wraps up the article:

Today, there are firms still in 1.0 and firms thundering forward in 3.0. The 3.0 firm is the one that is most likely to survive the future.

October 14, 2011

Social media expert Pamela Meyer can tell when you’re lying. If it’s not your words that give you away, it’s your posture, eyes, breathing rate, fidgets, and a host of other indicators. Worse, we are all lied to up to 200 times a day, she says, from the white lies that allow society to function smoothly to the devastating duplicities that bring down corporations and break up families. Working with a team of researchers over several years, Meyer, who is CEO of social networking company Simpatico Networks, collected and reviewed most of the research on deception that has been published, from such fields as law-enforcement, military, psychology and espionage. She then became an expert herself, receiving advanced training in deception detection, including multiple courses of advanced training in interrogation, microexpression analysis, statement analysis, behavior and body language interpretation, and emotion recognition. Her research is synthetized in her bestselling book Liespotting.

Online branding may be the most important marketing concept that you never think about. Granted, you may spend your brainpower thinking about online marketing and how you can generate more leads, but online branding is the Cinderella of the digital world.

He then goes on to define online branding and follows that with the question: Why Should You Care? He answers that with this piece of spot-on advice:

This one is actually pretty easy. Let's start with your professional services brand. As I have blogged about before, your firm's brand can be thought of as your reputation times your visibility. The greater these factors, the stronger your brand:

Reputation x Visibility= Brand Strength

So what is the first thing you do to check out a potential new vendor or business partner? Visit their website? Google them? Read their LinkedIn profile?

Your online presence is arguably the single most important factor shaping people's impression of your firm's reputation and boosting it's visibility. (emphasis mine)

Lee then gives you five places to start to strengthen your online brand. Every managing partner and CMO of a professional services firm should take a few minutes to read Lee's post and then review your online branding efforts. It will be worth your time.

June 29, 2011

While this presentation, The Real Life Social Network, was created for developers (by Paul Adam), there is much, especially at the beginning (page down to scroll through) which should help marketing professionals (and interested fee earners) understand social networks and how they are evolving.

I recommend spending some time with this and thinking about the concepts presented and how they impact not only you personally but how you interact with your clients, referral sources, and prospects.

My boss, Chris Mercer, often tells a story of the time, early in his career, that he spent with a very successful stockbroker. While with him, Chris took the opportunity to ask him the secret to his success. His response made a big impression on Chris and is an enduring truth. He said:

The key to my success is Momentum. If you have it, you do everything you can to keep it. If you don't have it, you do everything you can to get it.

We're approaching the mid-point of 2011. Time passes quickly. The days are long but the years are short.

Where are you on your goals?

Do you have the momentum to help you achieve them? Did you have momentum at the beginning of the year and now find yourself mid-year having lost that momentum?

Take some time in the next week or two to review your goals and, if needed, adjust or realign them to your current situation and then begin again to find the momentum you are seeking. For those of you who are on track, keep the momentum.

May the second half of 2011 be productive and successful for you and your firm!